Increasingly, MNC’s transfer parts of their operation to low wage countries in order to cut costs. The theory refers to this as to ‘offshoring’. The transfer of knowledge is a critical part of a successful offshoring project. In cross-boarder projects culture will influence the work. Thus, the aim of this paper is to deepen our understanding of the effects of culture and to reveal unexplored areas in the existing theories, through that the paper contributes with implications for how cultural challenges can be dealt with in an operational context. By connecting leading theories on knowledge transfer, offshoring and culture, a theoretical framework has been created. In order to expand the existing the theories a case study was conducted at IBM, studying two offshoring projects to India. The case study was conducted through eight qualitative interviews with six different respondents. All respondents were managers in IBM Nordic and IBM India. The interviews were conducted individually and as focus groups and carried out as discussions. The empirical data presented in the study also consists of information derived from strategy documents,provided to us by IBM. We found a number of factors to be considered in offshoring projects, which were not part of the theoretical framework,e.g. responsibilities for governance of the project should be decided and that the HR department should be involved from the start. Furthermore we found some areas of the process, which were more influenced by culture than others, such as what creates motivation and trust.

Sending employees on global assignments are becoming a means for companies to gain new knowledge and consequently increase their competitive advantage. This has created a new focus on the repatriation of employees. Repatriation is although still a disregarded aspect in research and many returning repatriates experience difficulties to readjust and feel dissatisfied with the repatriation process. More analytical information is thus needed for managers to inform about what actions to take to generate more advantageous results for both the company and the repatriate. The aim of the thesis is therefore to further examine how a business can manage repatriates to transfer knowledge more effective. The study expires in a conceptual framework concerning management of repatriates for effective knowledge transfer. A case study of a company within the consulting industry was conducted and the methodology used for answering the aim was the implementation of a survey. The purpose was to generate as qualitative answers as possible and as a result a questionnaire with a majority of open-ended questions was outlined. The questions were grounded in the framework and the analysis of the empirical findings showed dispersed answers and signs of dissatisfaction among the repatriates. Conclusions drawn from the analysis are that the management of repatriates needs to be further implemented within the company. For example an articulated process consisting of the three different steps: before, during and after the assignment should be elaborated for the company to become more competitive through knowledge transfer.

AIDS Saskatoon (AS), a non-profit organization, has limited funding. Most of the funding and resources for the organization go into service provision and education/prevention activities, leaving little time for strategic planning. Essentially, organizational knowledge exists at an individual level, which causes concern in terms of sustainability, continuity, evaluation, raising funding, writing research proposals, and staff training. AS operations are largely based on tacit knowledge, or knowledge that resides within individuals, and little of it is explicit knowledge, or knowledge that can be examined by and shared with others. This problem yields the following research question: How does AIDS Saskatoon convert their tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge? This research study examines AS tacit knowledge and represents it in an explicit format with the combination of thematic analysis and an organizational model. <p>A Participatory Action Research (PAR) method is employed to gather and analyze qualitative data. The thematic analysis reveals the mental models and beliefs that are taken for granted at AS and therefore no longer articulated among the participants but simply a part of their daily practice. A metaphorical model of AS, using Nonakas theory of knowledge creation as a theoretical basis, is presented to convey some of the tacit knowledge that cannot be captured in words. <p>AS has had some challenges in their explicit knowledge documentation. This research takes one piece of their tacit knowledge and represents it explicitly through themes and image: themes articulated tacit knowledge at AS in an explicit format, and the organizational model framed the knowledge by using metaphor. <p>An important implication of this research for the larger body of knowledge management literature is that the overarching concepts in Nonakas theory of knowledge creation were applicable for a community-based organization, where most Knowledge Management literature has focused on for-profit contexts.

As more and more convenience technology brings to human’s life by breaking through the obstacles of geography and psychology, e-health is being accepted by increasing number of people. It shows great potential to decrease the gap between the needs and satisfaction. However, the potential of e-health is far from being noticed. Knowledge shows inevitable advantages in different domains and of course the same in the health care industry. There are many different aspects that can be investigated and improved to reach the purpose, but in this dissertation, we aims to explore how to achieve a better knowledge transfer and sharing among e-health service-providers in order to create high-quality services that will be delivered to the patients. In general, U-CARE community is the one case that studied in this dissertation to explore how to identify knowledge transfer &amp; sharing practices and what techniques can be used to improve it in the context of e-health. A theoretical framework from Etienne Wenger is applied here to help the author understand community well. Further analysis and discussion are based both on existing theories derived from literature review and empirical data obtained in interviews. The main contribution from the author and conclusion in this dissertation are summarized in a format of framework concerning useful techniques and methods (shown in Figure 9), which involves knowledge transfer and sharing practices related to formal/informal meetings, face-to-face communication, coordinator, online platform, IT tools, change management, documentation management, tracking of requirements &amp; decisions, library of FAQ and personalization. The transferred and shared knowledge investigated in this dissertation is “back-office” data, not directly related to patient data, so the protection of patient personal privacy is not a consideration in this dissertation.

Introduction: Researchers traditionally present the results of their research in academic journals and through conference presentations. Typically, individuals working outside of academia do not have access to traditional journal indexes; the use of electronic archives has been shown to assist in disseminating research findings to potential users outside of the research community. Typically the results of participatory ergonomics research are published in peer reviewed articles or presented at conferences. Some health and safety associations have developed and published (in print or on their website) participatory ergonomics literature reviews and participatory ergonomics program implementation manuals with industry specific examples for their members. The Participative Ergonomics Blueprint and Ontario’s MSD Prevention Guideline are non-industry specific documents that can be used as resources for a participative ergonomics program. Currently, there is not an all-in-one resource for workplace parties containing all of the information to consider when determining if a participatory approach to ergonomics is appropriate for a specific workplace, or when implementing a participatory ergonomics program. Workplace parties would have to consult several sources (such as health and safety association publications, academic literature, books, magazines, corporate resources, safety groups, newsgroups, etc.) to gather and synthesize the information and resources required to develop and implement a participatory ergonomics program. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the responses to and effectiveness of an interactive website for knowledge dissemination to industry stakeholders. Methods: I developed an interactive wiki-style website with content based on my lay language synthesis of the participatory ergonomics literature. Relevant case-study examples, drawn from participatory ergonomics intervention studies, were used to illustrate concepts from the literature review. Website visitors were asked to complete a short questionnaire and were encouraged to contribute experiences, tools, links and comments on each web page in the “visitor contributed content” area. The purpose of the questionnaire was to learn more about website visitors and to gather feedback about the effectiveness of using an interactive website to disseminate participatory ergonomics research findings to industry stakeholders. Data were collected to allow computation of total duration of website visit, page order, total number of pages viewed, and the average time spent viewing each page. A qualitative analysis of all visitor contributed content and questionnaire responses was completed. The data were reviewed, grouped into themes and key messages were summarized. Ttests and chi-square analyses were completed to analyze the quantitative questionnaire responses. Results: During the data collection period (October 23, 2006 to May 31, 2007), there were 2214 website visits. With “short duration” and search engine indexing software visitors removed, 256 people came to the website, who browsed the content for more than one minute and viewed more than one page. During this time 54 questionnaires were submitted. All questionnaire respondents reported that the website content did not contradict their previous knowledge of participatory ergonomics. Several respondents stated they would need additional resources in order to determine if a participatory approach to ergonomics was right for their workplace or to implement a participatory ergonomics program. Suggested topics for a participatory ergonomics “tool box” included: timeline for program implementation, a timeline to demonstrate improvements in measurable outcomes of success, guidelines for ergonomics training, guidelines for assessment tools, methods and equipment, and an ergonomics policy/procedure template. Overall, with the exception of the expert’s rating of the visitor contributed content, the respondents found the case study examples and the visitor contributed content helpful. The source credibility of the literature review, visitor contributed and ergonomics content on the Internet were rated the same on all dimensions of credibility by questionnaire respondents. Eight unique website visitors made 13 contributions to the website. Website visitors were more likely to contribute to the website content if they visited the website for more than 10 minutes (chisquare 20.9038, df=1, prob <0.0001). The majority of contributions were added to the “successful and sustainable participatory ergonomics programs” and “participatory ergonomics” pages. Most of the comments were sharing “tips, tricks, and traps” from past experiences with participatory ergonomics (or similar) programs and sharing links to additional participatory ergonomics resources. The most common reason for not contributing to the website content was lack of time and not realizing that it was possible to contribute to the website. In addition to “not realizing that it is possible to contribute”, three people reported they were unable to figure out how to contribute to the website. This implies that prior to expanding this approach to knowledge transfer; there are user interface issues that should be addressed. Conclusions: The most significant limitation of this project was the small number of questionnaire respondents and the sparse visitor contributions to the website content which is likely due to not allowing a sufficiently long data collection period. Feedback from website visitors suggests that additional case study examples and a participatory ergonomics “toolbox” should be added to future iterations of the website. It was surprising that there were no statistically significant differences for the source credibility of the website content based on the literature review, the visitor contributed content and other health, safety and ergonomics information on the Internet. Most website visitors did not share their experiences due to a reported lack of time and user interface issues. To increase the number and frequency of visitor contributions, the user interface issues need to be resolved. An alternative method to engage website visitors (e.g. moderated commenting system) may be more successful than the wiki website created for this project. I believe that it is worthwhile to continue to invest time and resources to further develop this interactive participatory ergonomics resource. With additional time, continued recruitment and promotion efforts and changes to address user’s concerns (moderated commenting system, authority of contributions, addition of a ‘tool box’, etc.) there is the potential to fill an information niche that is currently missing online.

The tension of enhanced performance has been guiding Multinational Corporations (MNCs) for decades. The complexity of their structure, the increasing competition, and the slowdown of the economy have encouraged MNCs to seek new ways to improve their internal efficiency and eventually their performance. Only few organisations have understood the fundamental relevance of sharing the experience and knowledge gained through innovations and best practices. We focus our study on the case of Swedish subsidiaries fully owned by Italian MNCs, and we aim to verify if their communication and knowledge transfer systems allow them to raise the performance or, on the contrary, prevent interaction and cooperation in order to improve the overall performance of the organisation.

Introduction: Researchers traditionally present the results of their research in academic journals and through conference presentations. Typically, individuals working outside of academia do not have access to traditional journal indexes; the use of electronic archives has been shown to assist in disseminating research findings to potential users outside of the research community. Typically the results of participatory ergonomics research are published in peer reviewed articles or presented at conferences. Some health and safety associations have developed and published (in print or on their website) participatory ergonomics literature reviews and participatory ergonomics program implementation manuals with industry specific examples for their members. The Participative Ergonomics Blueprint and Ontario’s MSD Prevention Guideline are non-industry specific documents that can be used as resources for a participative ergonomics program. Currently, there is not an all-in-one resource for workplace parties containing all of the information to consider when determining if a participatory approach to ergonomics is appropriate for a specific workplace, or when implementing a participatory ergonomics program. Workplace parties would have to consult several sources (such as health and safety association publications, academic literature, books, magazines, corporate resources, safety groups, newsgroups, etc.) to gather and synthesize the information and resources required to develop and implement a participatory ergonomics program. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the responses to and effectiveness of an interactive website for knowledge dissemination to industry stakeholders. Methods: I developed an interactive wiki-style website with content based on my lay language synthesis of the participatory ergonomics literature. Relevant case-study examples, drawn from participatory ergonomics intervention studies, were used to illustrate concepts from the literature review. Website visitors were asked to complete a short questionnaire and were encouraged to contribute experiences, tools, links and comments on each web page in the “visitor contributed content” area. The purpose of the questionnaire was to learn more about website visitors and to gather feedback about the effectiveness of using an interactive website to disseminate participatory ergonomics research findings to industry stakeholders. Data were collected to allow computation of total duration of website visit, page order, total number of pages viewed, and the average time spent viewing each page. A qualitative analysis of all visitor contributed content and questionnaire responses was completed. The data were reviewed, grouped into themes and key messages were summarized. Ttests and chi-square analyses were completed to analyze the quantitative questionnaire responses. Results: During the data collection period (October 23, 2006 to May 31, 2007), there were 2214 website visits. With “short duration” and search engine indexing software visitors removed, 256 people came to the website, who browsed the content for more than one minute and viewed more than one page. During this time 54 questionnaires were submitted. All questionnaire respondents reported that the website content did not contradict their previous knowledge of participatory ergonomics. Several respondents stated they would need additional resources in order to determine if a participatory approach to ergonomics was right for their workplace or to implement a participatory ergonomics program. Suggested topics for a participatory ergonomics “tool box” included: timeline for program implementation, a timeline to demonstrate improvements in measurable outcomes of success, guidelines for ergonomics training, guidelines for assessment tools, methods and equipment, and an ergonomics policy/procedure template. Overall, with the exception of the expert’s rating of the visitor contributed content, the respondents found the case study examples and the visitor contributed content helpful. The source credibility of the literature review, visitor contributed and ergonomics content on the Internet were rated the same on all dimensions of credibility by questionnaire respondents. Eight unique website visitors made 13 contributions to the website. Website visitors were more likely to contribute to the website content if they visited the website for more than 10 minutes (chisquare 20.9038, df=1, prob <0.0001). The majority of contributions were added to the “successful and sustainable participatory ergonomics programs” and “participatory ergonomics” pages. Most of the comments were sharing “tips, tricks, and traps” from past experiences with participatory ergonomics (or similar) programs and sharing links to additional participatory ergonomics resources. The most common reason for not contributing to the website content was lack of time and not realizing that it was possible to contribute to the website. In addition to “not realizing that it is possible to contribute”, three people reported they were unable to figure out how to contribute to the website. This implies that prior to expanding this approach to knowledge transfer; there are user interface issues that should be addressed. Conclusions: The most significant limitation of this project was the small number of questionnaire respondents and the sparse visitor contributions to the website content which is likely due to not allowing a sufficiently long data collection period. Feedback from website visitors suggests that additional case study examples and a participatory ergonomics “toolbox” should be added to future iterations of the website. It was surprising that there were no statistically significant differences for the source credibility of the website content based on the literature review, the visitor contributed content and other health, safety and ergonomics information on the Internet. Most website visitors did not share their experiences due to a reported lack of time and user interface issues. To increase the number and frequency of visitor contributions, the user interface issues need to be resolved. An alternative method to engage website visitors (e.g. moderated commenting system) may be more successful than the wiki website created for this project. I believe that it is worthwhile to continue to invest time and resources to further develop this interactive participatory ergonomics resource. With additional time, continued recruitment and promotion efforts and changes to address user’s concerns (moderated commenting system, authority of contributions, addition of a ‘tool box’, etc.) there is the potential to fill an information niche that is currently missing online.

AIDS Saskatoon (AS), a non-profit organization, has limited funding. Most of the funding and resources for the organization go into service provision and education/prevention activities, leaving little time for strategic planning. Essentially, organizational knowledge exists at an individual level, which causes concern in terms of sustainability, continuity, evaluation, raising funding, writing research proposals, and staff training. AS operations are largely based on tacit knowledge, or knowledge that resides within individuals, and little of it is explicit knowledge, or knowledge that can be examined by and shared with others. This problem yields the following research question: How does AIDS Saskatoon convert their tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge? This research study examines AS tacit knowledge and represents it in an explicit format with the combination of thematic analysis and an organizational model. <p>A Participatory Action Research (PAR) method is employed to gather and analyze qualitative data. The thematic analysis reveals the mental models and beliefs that are taken for granted at AS and therefore no longer articulated among the participants but simply a part of their daily practice. A metaphorical model of AS, using Nonakas theory of knowledge creation as a theoretical basis, is presented to convey some of the tacit knowledge that cannot be captured in words. <p>AS has had some challenges in their explicit knowledge documentation. This research takes one piece of their tacit knowledge and represents it explicitly through themes and image: themes articulated tacit knowledge at AS in an explicit format, and the organizational model framed the knowledge by using metaphor. <p>An important implication of this research for the larger body of knowledge management literature is that the overarching concepts in Nonakas theory of knowledge creation were applicable for a community-based organization, where most Knowledge Management literature has focused on for-profit contexts.

Background: Nowadays, projects become the common way of working in manycompanies. Knowledge management is important for efficient project management.Knowledge transfer in project-based environments became an attractive and importanttopic for study. Various barriers and challenges will appear during the process ofknowledge transfer in projects. Lots of authors thought the barriers of knowledgetransfer in project are negative, while others mentioned that some barriers may havepositive aspects. We called these two kinds of barriers “positive barriers” and“negative barriers” in this thesis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand knowledge transfer inproject-based environments. Specifically, we aim to explain that barriers ofknowledge transfer in projects can be both negative and positive. Method: Due to the special time period and activity limitation, we chose case studyto gain the empirical data. When choosing the sample, we used the conveniencesampling. The sample chosen is a project team in Ericsson of Linköping. The projectmanager we interviewed has worked in Ericsson since 2004 and with his presentproject team for four years. He has already done more than fifteen projects, so he hasenough experience in projects for our study. We combined both inductive anddeductive approach strategies to analyze our thesis. Result: This thesis has answered the questions in the part of specified questions andreached the thesis purpose. It has explained the notion of knowledge transfer inprojects and its related barriers. It interprets how both negative and positive barriersaffect knowledge transfer. Furthermore, this thesis points out some suggestions forimproving positive barriers and reducing negative barriers.

Experiential education has impacted many classrooms across the United States since its inception. Experiential learning, for this study, is defined as the process of learning by experiences. For this study a specific course at Texas A&M University was observed to identify the aspects of the course that directly impacted the students' transfer of knowledge. This study identifies the themes within the course that impacted the students over one year after the completion of the course. It describes the five themes that emerged from data collection as: the role of the instructor as facilitator, the student's role is active, learning by experiences, deep learning, and emotional connection. These themes were consistent with previous research on experiential learning. The findings in this study revealed that knowledge is transferred after deep learning occurs, and that reflection and intrinsic motivation are two contributing factors of knowledge transfer. This study found that an experiential learning based course is effective in promoting deep learning. Since the sole purpose of this course was to teach the students how to teach the content of experiential learning as well as how to use experimental education methods, this particular course was effective in promoting deep learning. In the future, researchers should continue to observe the higher retention levels due to reflection, and note its results in other disciplines. Reflection is believed to be the key ingredient in experiential learning that contributes to knowledge transfer and application.